Broadcaster Jamie Theakston fulfilled a boyhood dream when he bought Wings
Place, a Tudor manor in the Sussex countryside. He explains why it is time
to move on

It is a dream that many have had: leave home, make your fortune and return to buy the smartest house in town. Few of us get to live it, however. Growing up in Ditchling, East Sussex, population 2,000, Jamie Theakston always knew about Wings Place. The Grade I listed Tudor manor house, built in the early-16th century and an immaculate example of its style, was the most famous home in the village.

“I was at the primary school across the green from the house,” he explains. “We wrote history projects about it. Being 600 years old, it has plenty of stories to tell. We used to call it the Anne of Cleves house because, allegedly, it was given to her by Henry VIII as part of the divorce settlement. I have no idea if that’s actually true or not, but the house certainly has an extraordinary history. It was associated with Thomas Cromwell, and Lord Abergavenny.”

All of which meant that when the opportunity came to buy the old place, 10 years ago, Theakston leapt at the chance. After school at Lancing he had moved to London, where he studied at North London Polytechnic before pursuing a broadcasting career. Starting out as a sports newsreader, he found fame as the presenter of The O-Zone, Live & Kicking and Top of the Pops.

“I suppose buying the house was a bit of a boyhood dream-type thing,” he says. “I love the area and I wanted a place where we could get away from London.”

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Now that he is based full-time in the capital, with a young family, he has put the house on the market for £2 million with Savills (www.savills.co.uk). But as a gorgeous family bolt-hole it has had, as cricket-keen Theakston might say, a good innings.

Beam me up: The house has inks to Anne of Cleves and Thomas Cromwell

For about 30 years before he bought it, Wings Place was owned by a reclusive American. “He was friendly, but a bit mysterious when we were growing up,” Theakston explains. “When he sold it to me, I remember very clearly that he said he wanted the house to be filled with people and music again.”

Theakston did just that. “It’s brilliant for entertaining. In 2007 my wife [Sophie Siegle] and I got married in the village church, and had the reception on the green, which the master bedroom overlooks. There is a big terrace shaded by an old magnolia, perfect for dinners or lunches. The big dining room is wonderful at Christmas.”

With more than 5,000 sq ft of living space, Wings Place was described by the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner as “eminently picturesque in a watercolourist’s way”.

It has five bedrooms, two of them en suite, over three floors. On the ground floor, there is a sitting room, library, study and drawing room, as well as the vaulted entrance hall. Outside is parking for three cars, half an acre of walled garden and a wine cellar.

“We had to do a lot of work when we bought it – all the plumbing and wiring – but it is a great space, and since then has required remarkably little upkeep. We’ve used it mostly for weekends and holidays. It was designed as a manor house, so it’s quite grand in scale. I’m 6ft 4in, and have never bumped my head. But we have lots of wonderful memories of the place, and so do my sons [Sidney and Kit, six and four].”

It is not hard to see why. Mentioned in The Domesday Book, Ditchling is the kind of place Americans would conjure if asked to describe a quintessential old English village. Located at the foot of the South Downs, it is notorious to cyclists as the start of Ditchling Beacon, the toughest climb on the London-Brighton cycle race. Theakston is not the village’s only glamorous alumnus: Sir Donald Sinden, the actor, grew up there, and Forces’ Sweetheart Dame Vera Lynn is a resident. And it was there that the sculptor Eric Gill founded his artists’ colony, the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic.

For most commuters the village is in easy enough range of London, but perhaps not for Theakston, 42, who now presents a breakfast show on Heart Radio, with the attendant early starts. The moment has come to move on. “I suppose we’re in the same position as the previous owner,” he says. “The bottom line is that we just don’t have time to use it that much any more. You never really own this kind of house, you just look after it for the next generation. It’s time for someone else to come along and fill it with children and music.”

While selling Wings Place is a wrench, it will give Theakston time to focus on his other love: buying and doing up properties.

“We kept the house for a decade, which is kind of amazing by my standards. I usually move on after about three years,” he explains. “At heart I think I am a bit of a frustrated architect. I have done up quite a few properties, and I have even got to the stage where friends have asked me to help them with theirs. I am fascinated by the spaces around us, where we think and work. They are so important. They can make you happy or unhappy. I always get a feel for the space that I’m in, and can become a bit cranky if I don’t like it.

“I love the creative process, but I’d be very wary of doing it as a job. My fear is that if it was work I’d stop enjoying it. I am also much happier spending other people’s money!”

He currently lives in Chiswick, west London, where his grand designs have not come easily.

“We built a large modern extension on the back of the house about three years ago,” he adds. “And I fell foul of planning officers.

“I had never come across these committees before. Without even visiting the property, they decided they didn’t like it, even though everyone else was in favour. I had to take it to appeal, which took six months and thousands of pounds in fees and lost rent. The independent arbitrator took about four minutes to rule in my favour. The whole process was ridiculous. But it’s over now, and I couldn’t be happier with the house. The kids are at school nearby.”

When it comes to selling Wings Place, on the other hand, planning restrictions are in his favour.

“Since we moved in, the area has been designated a national park,” he says. “It’s part of the South Downs National Park. Anyone trying to build a new property there is on a hiding to nothing. I think it’s one of only two Tudor manor houses like this in East Sussex. They aren’t making them any more.”

That said, the country schoolboy in him has not gone away. “My parents are still in Ditchling, so we will always be connected to the house. And I would love another place in the countryside. When I bought Wings Place I was fascinated by the history, but now I would really like to design and build my own house.”

That might be Theakston’s new ambition. His Sussex home, however, is sitting much as it has for more than half a millennium, waiting for someone to write its next chapter.

Wings Place is on the market for £2 million through Savills (01444 446000; www.savills.com).